Arclight Films has acquired worldwide rights to the Chinese production The Deathday Party, a psychological crime thriller starring Archie Kao, Anita Yuen and Xiong Naijin. The film has already sold in Hong Kong to My Way Films and other parts of Southeast Asia and is being shopped to buyers at the Toronto Film Festival. The directorial debut of writer-director Eddie Tse centers on a woman (Yuen) who wakes up in a cold and unfamiliar operating room with no memory of how she ended up there. She soon discovers she and her daughter have been abducted by a mysterious group of men and sent to a dark cave with seven other people to participate in a killing game called “The Deathday Party.” Only one person out of nine will be allowed to survive.

“The Deathday Party represents a new breed of Chinese film that takes on Hollywood-style concepts, pace and storytelling,” said Arclight’s Elliot Tong, head of Asian sales and acquisitions. “The film is set entirely in an imaginary city in the U.S. and all of its combined concepts make it a breakthrough film that will drive its sales potential all around the world.”